


is it fate (or just bad luck)?

by callieincali



Category: The Magicians (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, And I will regret nothing, F/F, High School AU, i'm throwing every trope possible in here, read this if you've waited all your life to see baby wickoff, the gays get drunk so drinking tw, this seems hetero at a glance but i would never, wickoff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-14
Updated: 2018-03-11
Packaged: 2019-03-18 08:53:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 11,678
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13678389
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/callieincali/pseuds/callieincali
Summary: wickoff high school au





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> so, no one has done any wickoff high school prompts so i’m claiming them all and plan to maybe definitely use a lot of them in this story. 
> 
> soo is it cliché? very! am i still gonna write it bc i’m a trope-loving disaster? absolutely!
> 
> anyway this chapter is long as hell and a lot of build up, which honestly if you’ve read my other stuff you’re probably used to and not surprised that things don’t even really start til 1000+ words in? i swear it’s not as hetero as if first seems.
> 
> okay i hope you enjoy this valentine’s day cuteness as much as i loved writing it!

Julia sat alone at lunch. Alone with Quentin, which essentially meant alone completely.

It wasn’t that Quentin didn’t talk to her. It was that he did and Julia had grown bored of listening.

Julia and Q had been friends for as long as she could remember— so long that she couldn’t pinpoint the exact moment they met anymore and just figured the boy had shown up one day and Julia let him stay— and she loved him like the closest thing to a brother she ever had. He was her best friend and he hadn’t changed in the slightest since they’d met.

But that was Julia’s problem with him. He hadn’t changed. He still rambled on about Fillory and Further as if he was reading the books for the first time, he still made Julia sit through the same magic tricks and critique them for mistakes, he still invested himself in a world of fantasy, and he still expected Julia to be just as invested as him.

And, sure, she’d be lying if she said new theories about the existence of Fillory didn’t still spark a flame of excitement inside her, but she had moved on more or less for spending her every waking moment pretending she was Jane Chatwin and Q her brother, Martin.

Quentin had not moved on. But Julia loved him too much to stop hanging around with him.

So, ‘alone’ she sat.

She was in her junior year of high school, the year everyone told her was the most important— the year colleges would look at when considering her acceptance. She was already at a four-plus GPA and her grades were impossibly perfect, but it was only the second quarter of the year, and that left two more for her to screw things up.

Most of her peers knew her as that one nerdy perfectionist of the year, the pretentious overachiever that spent all her free time studying and kissing up. But Julia didn’t mind the title and their jeers didn’t stop her studious ways. Because midterms were just around the corner, and after that came SAT’s and ACT’s, which led right into finals, and Julia couldn’t afford less than near perfection on them if she wanted even a glimmer of a chance to get into an Ivy League.

Quentin shared a vague interest in achieving the same goals as Julia, though she wondered if his desires were merely to ‘keep up’ with her for the sake of their friendship. Either way, he excelled effortlessly and Julia couldn’t help but sometimes feel jealous of how easily good grades and genius-level test scores came to him. She went searching for knowledge, but knowledge went searching for Q.

They studied together most days and spent a majority of their AP classes sitting next to each other, and that maintained the friendship enough for Julia to put the idea of kicking Quentin to the curb at the very back of her mind. But that didn’t mean she sometimes pondered on the idea of investing in a friendship that wasn’t built on the foundation of fantasy and lack of other options.

It was at lunch when Julia was offered her first invitation to a party.

James had walked over, which was an oddity in and of itself, and sat across from where Julia was revising her Physics notes and Quentin was maintaining his awkwardly downward-cast gaze at his school lunch.

“Hey,” he said, not to either of them in particular.

Julia could feel the beginnings of a flutter in her stomach at the sight of the boy at her table, and an uncharacteristically giddy smile tugged at her lips at the realization that he was talking to her.

If there was one thing she could add to her almost nonexistent list of romantic achievements, it would be her long-standing crush on James that had first become apparent in sixth grade. The two had shared maybe a grand total of fifty words during their five years of acquaintance, but that didn’t stop Julia from dreaming of the unrealistic possibility that one day they would date.

“Hey,” she managed in return as Q finally looked up from his mashed potatoes.

James glanced over his shoulder a few times before leaning closer onto his elbows and lowering his voice. “There’s a party tonight. I know that’s not really your scene, but if you wanted to come with me, that’d be cool,” he offered, this time unmistakably talking to Julia.

She opened her mouth to respond with a rehearsed speech about how badly she needed to study, but stopped before she could and mentally slapped herself for almost turning down the offer. _James_ was asking her to go to a party. _With him_. Her mouth hung open in consideration. And the lunch bell rung in place of her answer.

“You don’t have to answer now. I’ll give you the info in pre-calc and you can decide then.” James pushed from the table in a hurry, calling out a ‘see you later’ before disappearing into the crowd and leaving Julia with a heavy weight of confusion.

Pre-calc was her final class of the day which left her an hour or so to process what she had just been asked.

Quentin had taken to sending cautious glares in her direction and protesting the idea, which Julia would have wholly agreed with had it not been for the fact that James had asked her and filled her mind with the endless scenarios of how the night could finally take her crush past the hopeless pining it had always been.

Physics passed in a blur of notes and bookwork that left little time for thinking about her decision, and by the time the bell rang and she separated from Q to walk to pre-calc, she had made little progress on the problem.

Julia sat down at her desk and took to reading over the lesson from the previous class, hoping James would arrive too late to discuss the matter of the party before class. Her reading, however, was interrupted by the obnoxious sound of a chair scraping loudly against the tile, followed by an exasperated sigh from none other than Kady Orloff-Diaz.

Kady sat directly behind Julia, much to her dismay, and was universally known as the ‘problem-child’ of the class. The one that makes all the other students question how someone like her ended up in a college-level, honors class. The one that disrupts class for no other reason than because they want to and because they can.

Most of the class only had to deal with Kady’s distracting shouts of disapproval towards the teacher and the work load given, but being the one seated closest to the girl, Julia _also_ had to deal with Kady’s distracting mumbles of disapproval towards the teacher and the work load given.

Because of this, Julia grew to inherently dislike Kady, and as a result, dislike the class of pre-calculus altogether.

But any and all indignation towards the girl was quickly forgotten when James walked in moments before the bell rang and sent Julia a grin that she couldn’t stop herself from reciprocating.

The teacher began her lecture, thankfully before James had a chance to make his way to Julia’s desk, and the students fell into a hush that was broken once by Kady sighing loudly again. Julia held back from rolling her eyes, focusing on the fast-paced lesson she couldn’t afford to miss.

The teacher assigned the students their homework and allowed them time to get a head start on it— time that most students used to go on their phones or sit in silence, but of course, Julia used it to actually get started on the homework.

And it wasn’t more than five minutes in that Kady started being her usual, distracting self.

“One class without homework,” Kady muttered under her breath. “Is that really too much to ask for?”

Normally, Julia would have let the complaints go on for longer, but she wanted to finish the assignment early enough to allow herself time to think over James’ offer, so she turned around as soon as the first one fell from Kady’s mouth.

“Kady,” she sighed, forcing all the confidence she could muster into her tone. “Some of us are trying to work and would rather not listen to you groaning every two minutes because you got stuck in a class that you can’t handle,” is what she wanted to say, and what she would have said had she not considered the idea that Kady could probably beat her up and probably wouldn’t hesitate to. “Will you please keep it down, I’m trying to complete the assignment. Your mumbling is distracting,” is what she actually ended up saying with a polite smile grazing her lips.

Kady squinted a glare at Julia and wasted no time to roll her eyes. “ _Your mumbling is distracting,_ ” Kady repeated in a mocking tone, running a hand through her messy curls and returning her gaze to her blank notebook.

Surprisingly, Kady did remain quiet after Julia’s request, and Julia finished the given work with ten minutes left of the school day— ten minutes that she used, as planned, to contemplate going to the party.

James was at her desk before the bell finished ringing, his backpack slung over one shoulder and a typical smirk on his lips. “The party’s at Margo Hanson’s place. I’ll text you the address?” He asked, pulling a cellphone from his back pocket and holding it out to Julia with an ‘add contact’ screen shining towards her.

She swore the events unfolding must have been a dream; boys didn’t ask for her number, and boys definitely didn’t text her. Aside from Quentin, she supposed, but he was different, even if a majority of the time Julia questioned whether or not he had a crush on her.

She reached to take the phone into her hands with an uncontrollable smile spreading across her face, but was stopped by the sound of Kady talking, and when she looked up from where her gaze had been glued to the device, the curly-haired girl was standing beside her.

“You’re asking _her_ to go to a _party_? Do you know who she is?” Kady laughed through the question, looking between her and James, who had taken to looking awkwardly between Julia and the interrupting girl.

Anger boiled in Julia’s veins, her smile immediately fading to a scowl as James’ fell to a look of awkward confusion.

“I’d love to go, James,” Julia spoke before she knew what she was doing, locking a spiteful look on Kady as she grabbed the phone and typed in phone number.

Julia wasn’t sure whose face lit up brighter, Kady’s or James’, but she handed the phone back with a triumphant smirk on her lips and an unsure feeling in her gut. Kady mumbled something along the lines of ‘well, that was unexpected,” but Julia was too focused on the excitement James was expressing as he shoved his phone back into his pocket and promised to talk soon.

Quentin met up with Julia at her locker; they walked home every day, which usually ended with one of them at the other’s house to study, or do homework, or rarely just hang out. But Julia knew her afternoon would consist of none of the prior, which was stressing enough, but she couldn’t help but feel nervous about breaking the news to Quentin.

“Q, I can’t come over today,” she started, shutting her locker and locking her eyes with the floor as they walked.

“Oh, I can stay at your place today if that works better,” he offered casually, and Julia’s features twisted at the realization of what she was about to admit.

“No, actually, I have get ready.” Julia stopped and wondered how to word the next sentence, but settled on the tactic of ripping off the band-aid. “I’m going to a party.”

Quentin sputtered out a string of incoherent syllables at the revelation before choking out something understandable. “A party? The one James asked you to?” Julia nodded. “You realize we have _three_ weeks until midterms?” He paused as they stepped out the front door of the school, turning to face Julia as if he expected her to look sickly as an explanation to her sudden change in demeanor.

“I know, but it’s one night, and I’ll catch up over the weekend. I-I’ll stay up late, miss some sleep— it’s not a big deal.” Julia felt like a child explaining herself to her parents— but that was the relationship they had with one another; they kept each other in check, made sure one wasn’t falling behind, wasn’t giving up on a goal they had been striving for since they could remember.

Quentin shook his head in some kind of disbelief. “I thought you hated parties.”

“Well,” Julia didn’t finish. Well, my crush of six years asked me. She didn’t need to say it for Q to understand it. He sighed, and Julia almost felt bad because she knew there had to be a part of Quentin that felt a similar way about her.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, then,” he huffed, tucking a strand of hair behind his ear. They walked the last minute or so in silence before Q turned to head into his house without another word.

Julia wanted to feel guilty, but the nervous excitement far outweighed that feeling, and she barely made it to her bedroom before grabbing a pillow and letting out a muffled squeal into it.

Julia chose a simple outfit for the party, a gray shirt and a dark blazer— she threw together a combination of black tights and some short skirt collecting dust at the bottom of her drawer, hoping it would offset the prude vibe that her reputation already made for her.

James sent her the address around six, telling her the party would start around eight, and by seven forty-five she was pacing the space in front of her bedroom door, torn between arriving on time or ‘fashionably late’. She ultimately decided on a later time, leaving her room the moment the clock struck eight, sneaking past her sister and mother out the door and turning on GPS to guide her to the address given.

Julia arrived before eight fifteen, knocking loudly on the door that music was blaring loudly from behind. Some kids followed from behind her, yelling out something like ‘just walk in’ before pushing past her into the apartment. Julia slipped in through the open door, overwhelmed by the large crowd of people who had already accumulated in the living room and kitchen. She found James quicker than expected and tapped on his shoulder, smiling wide at the cheer of approval that came from him as he saw her face.

“Julia, you came!” He wrapped her in a side hug that she awkwardly accepted and returned.

“I said I would,” she mumbled against him, almost thankful when he let go and motioned to a few of his friends and introduced them. Julia couldn’t focus on the names given, her heart pounding wildly at the uncertainty of the situation. James must have noticed because he handed her an empty red solo cup and motioned to a counter strewn with countless different alcoholic beverages. “Grab a drink.”

Julia had been drunk once with Quentin; they wanted to know what it felt like and ended up laying on Julia’s bed laughing about nothing for the majority of the intoxication, but other than the few sips she’d tired of various wines and beer, Julia was quite inexperienced in drinking.

She found a keg of some red looking liquid that a few kids had lined up to pour a drink from and figured it to be some sort of punch-concoction. She filled her cup more than halfway and hoped whatever it was was light on the booze.

Deciding she could use her fair share of liquid courage, she downed what she had and poured a bit more to sip on, finding the taste to be pleasant and not at all like the vodka her and Q had passed back and forth a year or so ago.

She met back up with James, already feeling a placebo effect of the drink that instilled her with slight confidence, and joined in when she could on a conversation being had between him and a small group of others.

“What do you guys wanna do?” Julia asked as the talking tapered off. James looked between the boys of the group and Julia before answering.

“We could play a game?”

The other kids seemed to agree and each called out their suggestions of what to play (truth or dare was met with a universal groan, it was too early for beer pong, no one wanted to play flip cup) until someone called out a suggestion that seemed to pique everyone’s interest.

“Seven minutes in heaven!”

Julia had never played and only seen the game played in movies, but her knowledge was enough for her to decide it was something that thoroughly panicked her. On one hand, she had a chance of being picked to be with James, which might have actually lived up to the game’s name, but on the other hand, she could get stuck with some gross, handsy boy for seven minutes and regret the decision.

James noticed her apprehension and elbowed her side. “C’mon, Julia, it’ll be fun.” She glanced between James’ coaxing smile and the area where kids had begun writing their names on slips of paper nervously, but with one last look towards the boy she hoped she had a chance with, Julia downed the last of her drink and tossed it aside, joining the crowd of players.

The first pick didn’t have her name in it, and the seven minutes dragged by until two messy headed kids stumbled from the closet with cheers erupting from the onlookers. When a girl dipped her hand into the hat of names for the second time, she unfolded the paper so slowly, Julia thought she might die of anticipation. But when she read over the letters and called out Julia’s name, her stomach flipped in a way that made her wish it had taken longer.

She smiled sheepishly at the crowd who had taken to staring at her, hoping that at least the next name drawn would be James’ to save her from any awkward encounters. The hand disappeared into the hat again and when it reappeared and read out the second name, Julia’s face flushed immediately in panic.

“Kady Orloff-Diaz.”

The boys of the crowd roared sickeningly in approval, pushing forward a curly-haired brunette that wore a similar look of shock as Julia probably did.

Julia attempted a protest— a futile one that was drowned out by the yelling of her peers, and before she could stop it from happening, she was shoved inside the closet with Kady, the door slamming behind them and muffling the commotion outside to a just audible hum.

Julia let out a shaky sigh, blinking rapidly to force her eyes to adjust to the darkened surroundings. Kady’s face grew visible in the blackness, a look of concentration residing on it.

“You’re the girl who yells at me in pre-calc.” Julia was sure Kady knew her name, which only made the statement more annoying, so she forced herself to think up a reply of a similar nature.

“You’re the one who always distracts me in pre-calc,” she retorted, lacing the words with the irritation she felt. Julia realized a moment too late how the sentence sounded, and even in the dark noticed Kady raising an eyebrow at the wording.

Julia shook her head, even more frustrated. “Not like that.”

Kady laughed quietly, only furthering Julia’s desires to leave the enclosed space. But she supposed while she was stuck there for the next seven minutes, she might as well use it to get in a few words that had been sitting on the tip of her tongue since she was placed in the seat directly in front of Kady. “Some of us are actually in that class to learn and pass tests and actually go on to do something useful with our lives other than flipping burgers,” is what she wanted to say, and this time she actually said it, her tone filled with ice and the anger of almost five months built up. Had she not started to feel the buzz of alcohol, she probably never would have found the courage.

Kady seemed taken aback for only a second before her gaze hardened from its casual stare to an indifferent scowl. “Shouldn’t you be studying, then?”

Julia scoffed at that, the buzzing in her head feeling ever-present.

“I could never study again and still maintain a 4.0,” Julia snapped, unsure where her indignation towards the topic had suddenly come from. She didn’t have to prove herself to anyone, least of all Kady Orloff-Diaz who had recently scored under fifty percent on two major tests per Julia’s nosy observation.

Kady took a swig from whatever was in her cup, seemingly unaffected by the conversation. “Then why study?”

“It’s called overachieving, you may not have ever heard of it.” Julia had to admit the slight sounded unnecessarily hurtful, even as it fell upon her own ears, and she forced a steadying breath, pushing away some of her anger with it. Kady chuckled despite the insult, shaking her head and staring into her drink.

“There’s this thing called letting loose, you may not have ever heard of it.” Kady shot back, her tone never straying from neutrality. Julia wanted to be hurt by the statement, and her stomach did twist slightly as she heard it, but she knew the assumption was mostly true, though she refused to admit it.

“I know what letting loose is. I choose not to,” Julia muttered. Kady was scoffing before she could finish, and brought her eyes to Julia’s with a smirk tugging at her lips.

“Have you ever even had a sip of alcohol?” Julia started to answer that she had just been drinking, but Kady cut her off with a mumbled ‘before tonight.’ It rendered Julia to silence for too long for Kady to maintain a straight face. Julia couldn’t bring herself to confess that the only time she had been drunk was with _Quentin_. She hurried to think of something else.

“Yeah, actually, my dad’s an alcoholic. I grew up around it.” Kady didn’t hold the usual look of apology that most held when Julia told them of her dad, and she was almost appreciative of the lack of concern.

“Doesn’t mean you’ve ever had it.”

Julia shook her head, running an anxious hand through her hair. She thought alcohol was supposed to numb her nerves, yet her conversation with Kady felt as if it were heightening them.

“I have, okay? I just— can we leave yet?” Julia turned towards the door, her hand itching to turn the knob but fearing the backlash that would follow.

“It’s been two minutes, tops.”

Julia leaned against the wall behind her, letting out an exasperated sigh. Her eyes landed on Kady who had taken to kicking at a fallen hanger. From the angle, Kady looked different. Pretty, even. Perhaps it was the fact that Kady never dressed herself up to go to school, making her party attire seem unusual. Or perhaps Julia was just drunk and seeing her with altered vision. She shook the thought from her head, sighing again.

“Well, we’re clearly not doing anything in here, so,” Julia left the statement open for Kady to finish, and she figured the girl would. So, we might as well walk back out there. So, we might as well get comfortable since we’re stuck here for the next five minutes. But what came from the curly-haired girl’s mouth in response sent Julia’s stomach flipping in on itself, her cheeks flushing a deep crimson that she was _sure_ Kady could see.

“I mean, we could kiss or something.” Kady examined her nails in an apathetic nature as she suggested it, meanwhile, Julia’s mouth had fallen so far open, she wasn’t sure if she had forgotten how to close it.

“What, no! I don’t— I’m not—“ Kady took to laughing at Julia’s expense, a reaction that would have instilled Julia with more anger had she not been consumed by a feeling caught somewhere between embarrassment and _something else_ she couldn’t quite name.

Kady’s mouth hung open, too, in a way that seemed partly from amusement, partly from shock. “Oh my god, I was kidding!” She clarified, much too late to stop the many attempts Julia made to form a cohesive thought that only ended in sputters of useless sentence fragments. Kady stepped closer, only sending Julia’s heart rate climbing higher. “And it’s only a kiss, calm down.” Kady stuck out an arm and lightly shoved Julia, breaking her from the cycle of panic that had taken over. She forced a fake laugh and another short, steadying breath.

“Okay, well, I’ve never,” the words spilled from inside her before she could stop them— something for which she had her light drunkenness to blame— but her voice trailed towards the end, leaving a silence in the air that Julia could only hope meant Kady had no idea where that confession was going.

“Kissed a girl?” Kady asked, her voice more curious than teasing. Julia looked to her feet, unable to answer, the heat in her cheeks returning before it could fully fade. “Kissed _anyone_?” Again, Julia let the silence speak the answer, unwilling to admit it herself. Kady caught on and fell into another bout of laughter, relighting the flame of anger that had momentarily disappeared from inside Julia.

“Plenty of people my age haven’t kissed anyone,” she crossed her arms over her chest, staring into Kady’s green eyes with her own set like stone. The quiet laughter died down, but the teasing in Kady’s tone was ever-present.

“Like who? Your nerdy friend with the long hair? Not a good choice for a baseline,” she scoffed and took a long drink from the cup that Julia now assumed was empty.

“Plenty of others, too.” Julia’s rebuttal was far quieter this time, and she struggled to say something, _anything_ , to regain an ounce of control over the situation that was beginning to feel overwhelmingly out of hand. “It’s no big deal. ‘Just a kiss’. Like you said.”

It took Kady no time to respond in a way that had Julia reddening all over again.

“Okay, so kiss me, then.” It was obviously a challenge— a test to see if Julia truly believed those words or not. The truth was, she didn’t, but Julia wasn’t one to back down from a challenge. “‘It’s no big deal’. Like _you_ said.”

“What do you— no! I don’t want to.” Julia forced a calmness into her voice, as if it could distract from her quickened breathing and flushed cheeks.

But Kady only chuckled at the attempt, lowering her voice to barely above a whisper as she said, “Well, you’re blushing like you’re do.”

Julia instinctively stepped back, despite some tingling in the back of her head that told her to stay put, but even as she did, the two were within arm’s reach, and Julia couldn’t pull her eyes from where they were locked with Kady’s. Even in the dark, Julia could catch the hints of blue-green that sparkled from within them.

“I’m blushing because— it’s— that’s weird,” she stuttered, not even believing herself as she said it. Truly, she couldn’t determine why she was blushing, why she was nervous, why she was so, damn flustered around a girl that hours ago had held a top spot on the list of people she didn’t like. She blamed that damned punch even though presently, she felt more sober than ever.

 _Okay, so kiss me, then._ The phrase entered her thoughts for a split second, but long enough for Julia to consider the idea and flick her eyes to where Kady’s lips were just a step or two in front of her.

Kady unmistakably took notice of the action, and she stepped closer still with a quiet laugh.

“C’mon, you say you know what letting loose is. Let loose, Wicker.” It was the first time she heard a slight slur in the girl’s voice, the first time she considered that Kady was probably drunk, too. And that must have been why Kady was suggesting something as strange to Julia as kissing. They were both drunk and they got stuck playing some stupid kissing game that the two of them were succumbing to.

It was the explanation Julia fed herself just before she reached out and rested a hand on either of Kady’s cheeks, holding the position long enough for Kady’s cool composure to crack slightly and convey the sense of ‘oh-shit-this-is-really-happening’ that hid underneath. She felt hot breath fan over her lips once, twice, before she leaned in, her stomach twisting in every way she’d never felt before until the gap between them closed and silenced every heightened feeling for a split second before they hit her again, all at once.

Kady’s lips moved against her’s first, and Julia knew nothing else to do besides mimic the movements and slide a hand under the mess of dark curls to pull Kady closer. Kady’s hand found Julia’s shoulder and rested there, sliding once down her arm and back up again before Julia tugged her hand from behind the girl’s neck and pulled away, staring at the lips that had just been on hers in disbelief.

Julia’s lips felt like buzzing electricity— like a static charge that she had to stop herself from bringing a hand to touch just to see if they would shock her.

She opened her mouth to speak just as Kady did the same, but neither were able to get out a syllable before the closet door was unexpectedly pulled open.

“Seven minutes are up, lovebirds!”

Kady immediately neutralized her expression and Julia did her best to do the same, watching as Kady ran a hand through her hair and walked off, leaving Julia behind.

Julia stepped out from the closet, feeling more buzzed than when she had stepped in, drunk on something entirely different than alcohol.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Last chapter: Kady immediately neutralized her expression and Julia did her best to do the same, watching as Kady ran a hand through her hair and walked off, leaving Julia behind. 
> 
> Julia stepped out from the closet, feeling more buzzed than when she had stepped in, drunk on something entirely different than alcohol.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay so, sorry this took a while to get up and that it’s kind of short but i’ve been swamped under creative writing assignments and probably will be for a good bit. updates may be slow on this fic. 
> 
> i intended for this chapter to end a little further into the plot but i wanted to get something posted so here it is!
> 
> enjoy!

It was the kind of situation that movies had warned her about. The situations where someone gets drunk and does something they regret because their unaltered judgement wasn’t there to stop them.

It was why Julia didn’t go to parties— aside from the hundreds of other excuses that involved her education and preserving good grades. Things were too unpredictable, nothing had a set outcome.

And unfortunately, it took her experiencing it firsthand to remind her of her previous reasonings, but by then she had already taken to avoiding a certain curly-haired brunette at all costs and hiding herself among a group of dancing kids, hoping the heaviness that sat in her stomach was only temporary.

Her mother would probably kill her if she found out— and if the sheer embarrassment of it all didn’t kill her before then. Her first kiss had been with a girl— one she hated— and that realization blared too loudly at the forefront of her mind for its weight to be lessened by alcohol.

So, Julia foolishly drank more, thinking somehow that could help, and filled cup after cup with punch until her head felt light and her eyes felt droopy. She lost track of how many cups she’d downed when James found her in the kitchen for the first time since she had exited the closet.

“Hey,” he said, a familiar smile spreading across his face. “Are you having fun?”

Julia almost answered honestly— almost snapped and blurted out how terrible of a decision it had been to come along with him and how she wanted nothing more than to go home— but she bit her tongue and forced a nod, scanning a group headed their way for green-blue eyes and curly hair, relaxing when the search came up empty.

It was a huddle of two guys and a girl, stumbling over their own feet and catching themselves on one another, obviously far more intoxicated than Julia or James.

One boy stopped at the sight of them, calling out a noise that sounded vaguely like a cheer, and slapped a hand on James’ back.

“Did you do it, James?” The boy asked, almost too mumbled to be understood. James flushed a pale red, first shooting a glance in fear towards Julia before eyeing the boy in a way that said ‘shut up’.

Immediately, Julia was suspicious, but her mind took her to a conclusion that made her heartbeat quicken and her lips tug slightly upwards in anticipation. He was going to ask her out. It was the only explanation she could come to for the question the boy had asked and the worried look from James that followed. He was going to ask her out and his drunk friend had come to check if he had done it yet. Julia took the explanation and ran with it.

“Do what?” She asked innocently, allowing the smile to fully form on her lips. James opened his mouth to speak but the words that followed weren’t from him, and instead came from the same boy who had asked the question.

“We bet James that he couldn’t get you to sleep with him.”

Julia’s stomach dropped so suddenly, she thought she would lose the alcohol residing in it, her mouth uncontrollably falling open in confused shock. She looked to James, whose cheeks had fully taken on a red tint, waiting for clarification— waiting for him to say the boy was lying or just joking around.

“Julia, no, it’s—“

“Looks like he owes us twenty bucks!” The laughing that followed felt like a blow to Julia’s chest, one that filled her eyes with the beginnings of tears and stole the breath from her lungs. She turned before the first tears could fall, hurrying off in the direction of whatever was the farthest away from the kitchen, ignoring James as he called after her.

She couldn’t let herself cry— not in front of the countless students that probably already had her pinned as someone who didn’t belong at a party— but she also couldn’t quell the burning as it grew in her eyes. She hurried to the front door, pulling it open and hoping the cool autumn air would be enough to stop the tears. Her vision was almost too blurred to see as she leaned her back against the wall beside the front door, shoving the heels of her hands into her eyes with the hopes that it could stop the emotion from spilling over.

The typical hum of car engines was the only sound to be heard through the silence of the outdoors, and the quiet let her mind run through the memory over and over, each time only punctuating the same message that Julia wished she had listened to from the moment James brought up the invite. She shouldn’t have come.

“Letting loose isn’t going too well?”

Julia jumped and let out a quiet yelp at the familiar voice, peeling her hands from her eyes and taking in the sight of the girl that almost filled her eyes with tears all over again. It felt like a cruel joke that she would run into Kady then, of all times, like she needed anymore bad luck to sour her night even further.

“Jesus, Kady,” the words came out like an instinct, beginning in breathless surprise but ending with a sharpness in her tone that Julia hadn’t known she could muster with the disappointment tightening her chest. She forced a sigh that bled into a quiet groan, running a shaky hand through her hair before continuing. “It’s going fine, thanks for the concern.” Julia could feel herself fumbling through the words but managed to bring an obvious sarcasm to them that Kady picked up on and scoffed in what seemed to be feigned shock.

“Wow, okay, was the kiss that bad?” Kady laughed as she said it, and had Julia been anymore drunk and emotional she thought she might have slapped the girl. Instead, she groaned again, hoping that maybe she would black out and save herself from the embarrassment of the situation.

“No, it’s not—“ she started, but abandoned the attempt, narrowing her eyes to slits and gathering every ounce of intimidation she could find inside herself. “Don’t tell anyone about that.” The last thing Julia needed was for word to get out that her and Kady had kissed and give her peers another reason to think of her differently. Thankfully, Kady held up her hands in defense, a silent gesture that told Julia the girl had no plans to expose her. The space between them fell silent and Julia used the gap in conversation to let her head fall back against the wall behind her, trying to unscramble the mess of thoughts in her mind.

“Lemme guess, that James kid turned you down.” Kady finally broke the hush, turning to face Julia so that just one side of her body was pressed against the front of the house. Julia chuckled at the irony between the question and the answer to it, tilting her gaze upwards and taking in the clouded sky that was visible above.

“No, the other way around, actually.”

Kady tilted her head, and from her peripheral vision, Julia could see the moon glinting off of Kady’s green eyes and making them look paler than they were. She wanted to turn to take in a better view of them, but held her gaze with the sky, afraid that not doing so would reveal the emotion that had threatened to break through moments before.

“He made a bet to see if he could make me have sex with him.” Julia knew it was the alcohol that made the confession come easily; in a sober state, she would have never opened up to Kady, and she never would have done so in a tone that sounded so vulnerable, even to herself.

“Ouch,” Kady mumbled, the emotion behind the word remaining unclear and blurred between sympathy and apathy. Julia let out a breathy laugh, the forced kind that acted as a facade to the ache that hadn’t left her chest.

“It was stupid— I was stupid to have even come here. I knew it was too good to be true. Guys don’t ask me out,” Julia rambled, still unsure why she had deemed Kady an appropriate person to open up to. She said it in the same way she would probably say it to Quentin the next day at lunch after she sobered up, and that realization muddled her thoughts further.

Julia finally dropped her eyes to look into Kady’s, waiting almost expectantly for a reply that, truly, Kady didn’t owe her.

“Well, I would say that’s not your fault, but,” Kady spoke, her tone never dipping from the humor that had been present since the beginning of the conversation, and took a long sip from her cup, leaving the statement unfinished.

And Kady probably hadn’t intended any ill will with the reply, but Julia found her cheeks heating in an anger that itched and stung nonetheless, and she couldn’t stop the way her lips pursed in annoyance. Julia wanted to dare Kady to finish that thought. Not because she didn’t know what Kady would say, but because she did and wanted to hear it from the girl, herself.

She shook her head, channeling the growing rage into her voice as she responded.

“Thanks, that’s exactly what I wanted to hear.”

Kady chuckled quietly, seemingly unaffected by the sharpness of Julia’s tone, and the shorter girl almost found herself jealous of the composure. Julia had been attempting to draw even so much as an unsatisfied frown from Kady, but had only succeeded in pulling many from herself. It only annoyed her more that Kady simply shrugged off Julia’s slights, and it was the constant indifference that convinced Julia to finally up her game slightly.

“Sorry, but guys aren’t attracted to stuck-up rich girls, it’s just the truth.” Kady said— and there was the slur, again. The one that reminded Julia, briefly, that the two of them were very drunk and saying things they probably didn’t mean. But hell, if Julia was going to allow Kady to be the only one slipping insults into the exchange. She shot the girl a pointed glare, already second guessing her choice of reply before she could utter it.

“Then, considering you’re desperate _and_ lower class, I’m sure guys are _all over_ you.” Julia leaned close as she said it, and immediately felt a pang of regret when Kady’s face twisted in a way that vaguely resembled hurt. She half-expected a fist to collide with her cheek, but Kady only rolled her eyes and leaned closer, too, until their faces were mere inches apart for the second time that night. Julia wanted to feel fear— and knew she probably should— but the liquid courage flowing through her blinded it. Julia hardened her gaze against the icy one glaring back at her.

“And you were, too, a little while ago. In case you forgot.”

Julia’s cheeks burned so hot she could feel her heartbeat racing through them; there was no doubt that Kady noticed their deep redness but Julia pulled back and lowered her head anyway, managing a scoff with a false hope that it would hide the embarrassment. She pushed from the wall and stumbled down the from steps, muttering an “I’m going home” and refusing to look back.

The streets felt quieter than usual, perhaps because Julia had never been one to stroll along them during the late hours of the night, but she longed for their usual noise, desperate for anything to keep her mind from wandering to the memories of what had possibly been the worst night of her life.

She just needed to keep herself together for the ten minute walk back to her apartment, and after that she could let sleep keep her distracted, at least until she was sober enough to deal with her crowded thoughts logically.

She made it halfway home before sobs hiccuped in her chest and sent hot, angry tears down her face.

She staggered past her front door and carelessly found her way into her bedroom, unfazed by the thought that her mother had probably heard her and would be suspicious in the morning.

Julia hurriedly undressed and fell into her mattress exhaustedly, pressing her face into her pillow and crying quietly until she succumbed to her fatigue and fell asleep.

 

* * *

 

Julia remained considerably hungover until somewhere around lunchtime the next day, where she met up with Quentin and dropped her school lunch tray loudly on the table beside him.

Following the events of the previous night, Julia had taken the approach of attempting to suppress the memories of Kady and James and Kady again, an effort assisted by how drunk she had been during them. She consumed herself in school work and studying, leaving close to no time to dwell on the events that had unfolded. But when lunch rolled around, Julia knew Quentin would have questions that would inevitably bring her evasion to an end.

She tried to ignore the looming implication that lunchtime meant only two more classes until Julia would have to sit right in front of the girl she wanted to avoid and just hoped that maybe Kady would be too hungover to show up to school.

“Hey, Jules,” Quentin greeted her, an obvious hint of anticipation in his voice.

She hadn’t decided how much she would tell him— she had always told Q everything, but a gut feeling told her to hold back, especially on the matters involving Kady.

“James only wanted me to have sex with him to win a bet, and this bitch from my pre-calc class was hell-bent on ruining my night, so,” Julia explained before Quentin could ask, since it was obvious he wanted to know. She figured it was vague enough to save her dignity, but not enough to sound withholding, and Quentin must not have been skeptical of the explanation, his eyes widening in a surprise that Julia knew held an underlying sympathy.

“Geez, Julia,” he said through a sigh. “I’m— sorry that happened.”

Julia was thankful for the lack of the ‘I told you so’ she definitely deserved, and simply shrugged as if the night hadn’t been eating away at her insides since the moment she had left the party. She hadn’t seen Kady in the halls, and probably wouldn’t see her until her final class of the day. It left her no way of knowing whether or not the girl had decided to spill the events of the night to her peers, but she found herself over-analyzing every glance in her direction, scared they meant the students around her had heard the rumors and believed them.

Quentin hadn’t started to treat her any differently, which really wasn’t much of a gauge at all towards the matter. Q wasn’t exactly the type to be informed of the happenings of their school— if there was any gossip, he would probably be the last to know.

Her hangover headache had finally faded by the time lunch ended, though she still couldn’t bring herself to eat more than a bite or two of her meal. She blamed it on the excessive alcohol, though she knew her permanently quickened heart rate and anxious twisting of her stomach were at fault.

Physics passed far too quickly for her liking and before she knew it, she was waving a shaky hand at Quentin, untrusting of her ability to call out a goodbye without her voice shaking just as her hands did.

She stopped at the bathroom on the way, splashing cold water over her face and running through a silent pep talk in her head with the hopes that it would calm her nerves. Julia had never been one to care about what others thought of her, but something about the situation resonated far more than any other tarnishes to her reputation she could have faced, though that ‘something’ felt impossible to decipher.

Julia walked into pre-calculus later than usual, her head low and angled straight towards the tile below, and hurried to her seat, unable to stop herself from stealing a glimpse of where Kady sat.

The curly-haired girl was already there, arms crossed over her chest and eyes narrowed in Julia’s direction. Julia hastily looked away, taking her seat and ducking her head once again, desperately attempting to ignore the tightness that had begun to swell in her chest.

The teacher began a lecture that Julia truly tried to listen to, but could only focus on the intense silence that came from behind her. Not once in the duration of the class did Kady let out so much as a quiet sigh— an event that Julia would never have even considered possible a few days prior.

When students began shuffling out of the classroom, Julia purposely pushed her way past them, putting herself out of sight of Kady. But the attempt only lasted so long before her teacher— an old woman named Mrs. Santos— waved Julia over to her desk and stopped her from making it out of the door.

“I wanted to talk to you about something before you left,” she explained, resting her elbows on the desk and folding her hands in front of her.

Julia obliged and slung her bag over her shoulder, unable to stop the instinctual glance she took around her that landed on wildly curly hair for the second time that class. Kady’s eyes didn’t hold the iciness they had the first time though, instead filled with a look of near concern as they flicked rapidly between Julia and Mrs. Santos. And Kady was the one to break the eye contact this time, dropping her gaze to the floor and hurrying out of the classroom, clutching her books at her side.

For a moment, Julia wondered if maybe Kady, too, was embarrassed about their time spent together the previous night. She dismissed the idea, only because she couldn’t picture Kady Orloff-Diaz being genuinely concerned about anything.

“Julia, I’m sure you already have quite an impressive transcript, but I wanted to offer you an opportunity to add to it, considering you’re one of my strongest students.” The woman continued, pulling Julia from any residual thoughts on the matter and directing her attention to the praise she was receiving. Julia thrived on praise, not because she needed it, but because she rarely got it from anyone other than Q, and even then, it was uncommon. She thanked the teacher with a polite grin.

“I have a student in need of tutoring,” Mrs. Santos said, instilling Julia with the same sense of excitement that she always felt in regards to furthering her education. Tutoring was something almost all colleges appreciated on an application, though, as the woman had assumed, Julia’s transcript definitely didn’t need any help. “It would be a couple times a week, after school, in the library. And if things aren’t working out, you can quit at any time.”

Julia nodded along her confirmation, though her mind was elsewhere, already contemplating the effects of taking such an offer, rather than focusing on the details of it.

Mrs. Santos leaned back slightly, her hands unfolding and laying flat on the wooden desk. “Her name is Kady, you may know her.”

Julia immediately felt the blood draining from her face, leaving a cold paleness in its wake. Her jaw slackened at the recent memory of Kady sending a nervous look in her direction, suddenly sure she had placed a reasoning to it. Julia rushed to clear her throat before the woman could notice her break in composure.

“Yeah, I do,” she forced a smile, hoping to offset any lack of casualty that had surfaced.

“She hasn’t been doing well this semester, and she needs a high grade on the midterm to keep herself from failing.”

Julia could have laughed at that, not only because it was so typically Kady-like for her to be failing, but because once again, her life had decided to remind her just how ironic it had become. From forcing her into a closet with the girl, to seeing her outside after that, and now setting her up to be the girl’s tutor— whatever twisted game fate was playing, Julia was growing tired of it.

Mrs. Santos continued on for a minute or so longer, but Julia had stopped listening, consumed in a thought that almost made accepting the offer seem like an okay— and dare she say, _good_ — idea.

Because tutoring Kady could be the perfect safeguard in ensuring that the curly-haired girl wouldn’t blab about what had taken place the night before. Kady would maintain a passing grade and Julia would maintain her spotless reputation. A fluttering overcame her stomach as she opened her mouth to respond, suddenly unsure if keeping Kady quiet was the only thing she expected from the opportunity. She answered before she had fully decided and before she could change her mind.

“I’ll do it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i swear kady and julia aren’t gonna be rude to each other forever ok
> 
> i greatly appreciate all comments and kudos so if you feel like leaving some it would probably make my day, just sayin. 
> 
> hopefully i can get the next update a little sooner, but until then,, maybe this will hold you all over!


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Last chapter: Because tutoring Kady could be the perfect safeguard in ensuring that the curly-haired girl wouldn’t blab about what had taken place the night before. Kady would maintain a passing grade and Julia would maintain her spotless reputation. A fluttering overcame her stomach as she opened her mouth to respond, suddenly unsure if keeping Kady quiet was the only thing she expected from the opportunity. She answered before she had fully decided and before she could change her mind. 
> 
> “I’ll do it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this came a lot sooner than i planned so consider yourselves blessed
> 
> i wrote at least 2/3 of this chapter on zero hours of sleep and edited it in the same state, so typos are probably there!
> 
> either way, this chapter you’ll finally get to see a liiiiittle bit of a shift from enemies to friends but nothing too crazy, this is still pretty slow burning. 
> 
> enjoy!

Tutoring was set to start on the Monday of the following week, which left the weekend for Julia to spend thinking about the decision. She had caught Quentin up to speed on how she would be spending her Monday, Wednesday, and Friday afternoons until the semester was over, and though he liked the idea of Julia adding to her college application, Julia could tell he didn’t as much like the idea of spending less time with her. And part of her felt bad, despite the overwhelming part that was almost relieved to have some time away from the boy. Maybe it would push him to find other friends— or so much as acquaintances— other than the same girl he had been hanging out with since elementary school.

Julia was sure the concept of spending even more of her time around Kady hadn’t sunk in yet, otherwise she would have praised herself for handling the situation with such indifference. The reminder rarely entered her thoughts throughout the weekend, but did begin to linger like a bad aftertaste as she fell asleep on Sunday.

And it blared louder with every quickened beat in her chest as she stood outside the library doors the next afternoon, stuck somewhere between opening the heavy door and turning to flee in the opposite direction, straight out the double-doors of the high school’s entrance. There was still the possibility that Kady had been left in the dark about who her tutor would be; Julia figured that was what scared her the most about walking through the doors.

She had hung back at the end of class, pretending to struggle with shoving her books into her bag, and didn’t leave until Kady had long since disappeared into the hallway, hoping it would prevent Julia from running into her on the way to the library.

Julia tried to read the girl’s face in class, and though Kady’s expression revealed nothing about her feelings towards the tutoring, the seat behind her did erupt in a few choice complaints during Mrs. Santos’ lecture, and Julia figured that was a little better than the tense silence that had come the class before.

Julia’s hand finally found the library door after she reminded herself how stupid she probably looked to any passersby, and she mustered the courage to pull open the heavy door, eyes automatically scanning over the mostly empty room for a familiar face.

There was a resentful portion of her stomach that pulsed in residual indignation as she caught sight of the curly-haired brunette, but the overall uncertainty of the situation easily drowned it out and replaced Julia’s clenched fists with sweaty palms.

Kady’s head was leaned onto her hand, her sight trained on where she drummed a mechanical pencil on the edge of a choice library table. Julia couldn’t tell if she hadn’t looked up because she didn’t notice the door opening or because she did.

Julia cleared her throat as she approached the table, drawing Kady’s concentration from the beat she was tapping. Her green eyes narrowed as they landed on Julia’s face.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Kady closed the pre-calculus textbook that had only been opened as far as the table of contents and scooped it under her arm, pushing up from the chair with the intention of leaving. Julia had half-expected the outcome and instinctively moved to where Kady would have needed to walk past, placing a hand on the ear of an empty library chair.

“Trust me, I wish I was,” she replied with just enough severity for Kady to pause in her movements and send a look of skepticism Julia’s way before muttering a barely audible “I’m out of here,” and piling her supplies into her backpack.

“You’re failing pre-calc,” Julia reminded her, only succeeding in drawing another icy glare from Kady that rested there for far longer than Julia was comfortable with. She fidgeted with her hands for the sake of doing something other than staring back.

“Go get your volunteer hours or whatever-the-fuck with someone else,” Kady finally said, returning her attention to zipping her bag and slinging it over one shoulder.

Julia knew how to argue— it had always been one of her strengths, probably due to the stubbornness that had stuck with her since childhood— and easily conjured a response to the statement.

“I’m the best student in that class and you know it,” Julia began, in no way meaning to brag despite the overwhelming sense of superiority that came through. Kady groaned loudly and shook her head, obviously missing Julia’s intentions of the implication, but failing in wavering her confidence as she continued. “If you want even a chance of learning a whole semester of material before midterms— which are three weeks away, in case you didn’t know— then you need my help.”

Kady straightened but made no effort to continue past Julia and out the library doors. Instead, she clenched her jaw from where she stood, looking everywhere but at Julia, and crossed her arms over her chest. Julia didn’t need a confirmation to know the logic had resonated with the girl. The next time Kady spoke, her voice was steady, barely straying from neutrality.

“What are you gaining from this?”

“Besides an extracurricular for college applications?” Julia paused, shifting her weight between her feet. Kady’s scowl didn’t falter as she squinted her eyes to slits, the same previous skepticism playing through her features. Julia sighed and dropped her hands to her side. “I help you pass this class and you don’t tell anyone about the—“ she stopped herself from finishing.

Kady tilted her head as if she didn’t understand, but when the blank filled itself, she rolled her green eyes and scoffed, a look of genuine amusement on her face. It quickly mixed and grew lost under the dominant indignant expression, her curls bouncing on her shoulders as she shook her head once more. “You are so stupid.” And though Julia expected a reply of that nature to indicate a rejection of the offer, Kady contradicted herself and dropped her bag to the floor beside the table, returning to her chair with a huff of exasperation.

Julia assumed they had a deal.

The air was heavy and silent as Julia took out her textbook, her mind reeling with the necessity to break the tension that was beginning to swell between them. Kady was the first to speak, beating Julia to the opportunity. “I need an 83 on the midterm to end the class with a C.”

Julia started to nod but stopped when her chin neared her chest. “That’s assuming your grade doesn’t drop any lower before the semester ends.” Kady lowered her eyebrows, throwing her hands up in a gesture of aggravation.

“Okay, you’re my tutor. Make sure it doesn’t,” Kady said, the edge still present in her voice. She sighed a short breath, tangling her fingers in the messy curls of her hair and running them through it. “There’s a quiz on Friday. How can I pass that?”

“I don’t know if you can,” Julia answered honestly, but only added to the confusion that had begun to build in Kady’s expression. She cleared her throat and attempted to clarify. “You can’t just pick up learning from this week’s lesson. I can’t teach you to multiply if you don’t know how to add, first.” The analogy seemingly resonated with Kady but only succeeded in prompting another groan from the girl.

Julia was great at math— exceptional, even— but she also knew her boundaries. And Kady was a step away from the edge of ‘challenging’ and a steep plummet down to ‘basket case’. As great as she was, she wouldn’t expect _herself_ to be able to learn a semester of pre-calculus in one week, much less the girl whose most recent test score was in the mid-thirty percents.

Kady leaned back against her chair, the confusion and anger of her visage gone and replaced with a look that Julia couldn’t find a name for. Her lips pursed, as if in concentration, and her eyes squinted in a similar fashion. Julia shifted under the gaze, the awkward gap in conversation catching up with her and impelling her to continue fidgeting with her thumbs under the table.

“What if I cheat off of you?” Kady spoke the words slowly, like their effect would be lessened if she asked cautiously. The method proved futile, Julia’s mouth falling open in shock despite the attempt.

“Are you kidding me?” Kady scoffed as if she was, but neutralized her expression when Julia didn’t join in on the laughter.

“I need to pass this test, you can’t teach me the material. Cheating sounds like the best option I have,” she rationalized, failing in eliminating the disgust from Julia’s face at the suggestion.

“It’s _not_ an option!”

Kady rolled her eyes in typical Kady-fashion. Julia had begun to wonder if it was the only gesture of emotion she was capable of. “It’s just cheating. Plenty of people do it.”

“Plenty of people don’t have a four-plus GPA and a handful of scholarships to jeopardize.” Julia clenched her fists in her lap, struggling to regain the composure that seemingly always slipped from her grasp in Kady’s presence.

Kady held a hand up to stop Julia from continuing, her features twisting into a visible cringe. “Okay, no need to brag.” Julia forced a steadying breath at the reminder of how pretentious she definitely sounded, allowing silence to reclaim the area as the previous undeterminable emotion returned to Kady’s face. “But if you’re not going to hold up your end of the deal, why should I hold up mine?” And Julia knew then the look was undoubtedly one of mischief, and her cheeks reddened considerably at the implication, despite the knowledge that Kady was probably bluffing.

Julia crossed her arms in front of her, forcing something similiar to the edge of Kady’s voice into her own words. “Really?” She figured it was only fair if she had a turn at being the annoyed one of the two. Kady chuckled quietly at the ultimatum she had left Julia with— Julia had to admit the girl was good at negotiating.

“It was your offer,” Kady reminded her, like she could have forgotten. Julia leaned her head back and stared at the roof, contemplating the weight of what she was being asked to do. “All you have to do is take the quiz and not hide your answers. I’ll take care of the rest. You won’t even know I’m there.” Julia could sense the hints of desperation playing through Kady’s voice. But she would be lying if she said she wasn’t the slightest bit desperate to keep their deal, too.

For the umpteenth time that week, Julia found herself leaning towards the decision that sounded the most like something she would regret. And just like all the other times, she foolishly blocked out the voice in her head telling her to decline.

“Fine, but if something goes wrong, you’re taking the fall for it.” She turned her attention to the pre-calculus book on the table in front of her, flipping through the pages to signal an end of the conversation before the regret of her choice could catch up with her.

Kady followed suit and turned her own book to the first lesson of the semester, but not without a visible smirk of triumph on her lips.

 

* * *

 

There was a substitute teacher on Friday, but no alternate assignment was given, and neither was a delay of the quiz. And just as planned, Kady lowered herself into the seat directly beside Julia, rather than the one behind her, a change made easier by the oblivious substitute, who had no knowledge of the correct seating chart.

She still wouldn’t consider herself and Kady on anywhere near good terms, but they managed to remain civil and professional during the two tutoring sessions Kady had attended throughout the week. They didn’t talk much more than the mandatory questions and discussions that came up through the lessons, but Julia did notice a slight fading of the seemingly permanent glare that Kady tended to aim in her direction.

It wasn’t much, but it was more than where they stood at the end of the previous week, and Julia could live with the small change.

Her heart raced as the substitute introduced herself and passed out quiz packets to every student in the room before returning to her desk and informing them that they had until the end of class to finish. Kady shot a glance towards Julia that she met with an uncertain nod of her head.

The room fell into a hush, occasionally broken by the sound of shifting pages or tapping pencils, and Julia fell into her usual testing routine of working a problem, finding an answer, and working it out a second time to check her answer. To most everyone else in the class, it was a waste of time, but to Julia, it saved her ass too many times from small mistakes for her to give up the method. Thirty minutes in, Julia was halfway through the questions, while a handful of students had started to turn their packets in at the front of the room.

She could tell Kady was growing impatient beside her from the steady increase of barely audible complaints that began to filter in. “Can you hurry up?” Kady whispered after a particularly loud sigh. Julia’s eyes stole a glance at the preoccupied teacher before responding.

“Do you want to pass this test or not?”

“I’d like to pass it before the end of the week.” Kady let her head fall against her hand, using her other to tap a pencil quietly on the edge of the desk. Julia shook her head at the exaggeration.

“Then shut up and let me—“ before Julia could finish the statement, the sound of the teacher loudly clearing her throat pulled her attention to where the woman stood, arms crossed, at the front of the room.

“You two, bring your tests up here.”

Julia could feel her face instantly growing pale, her stomach sinking so low inside her, she thought she might throw up from the feeling. Her classmates shot looks of confusion in her direction, each one probably questioning why a teacher’s pet like her was suddenly in trouble. Kady was the first to stand and the movement reminded Julia that she needed to do the same, her legs shaking as she pushed to her feet and followed from behind Kady, heart racing at a mile a minute.

Kady seemed absolutely unfazed by the situation, only rolling her eyes once before they made it to the desk at the front of the room.

“Cheating is not allowed during tests,” the woman started, her voice only loud enough for the two of them to hear. Julia wanted to convey how obvious and unnecessary the statement was, but her mouth remained clamped shut— her face probably only conveying a look of deer-caught-in-headlights.

‘Thank god Kady is here’ was something Julia never thought would enter her mind, but as the curly-haired brunette took charge of the situation, it was all she could find herself thinking.

“We weren’t cheating.” Kady mirrored the woman’s air of superiority, casually replying with the lie in a way that Julia almost found herself believing.

“You were talking during a test. In my eyes, that is cheating.” Julia opened her mouth to protest— to say anything that could save them from whatever consequences were about to follow— but nothing came past her lips. Nothing except a shaky breath that didn’t help to stop the constant stream of fears whirring through her head. “I’ll be keeping your quizzes. Your teacher can do what she deems necessary with them. Until then, you will both have after school detention.” Her hand tugged at a metal drawer and thumbed through a mess of documents until her fingers pulled two yellow slips from among them. Julia panicked at the sight, her mouth falling open once again and her eyes beginning to sting with the beginnings of what she refused to let be tears. “Wait, I—“ Julia paused and swallowed the lump forming in her throat. “I’ve never had detention.” The teacher slowed her movements for only a second before continuing to scribble their names and her signature on the slips of paper. Kady scoffed in a ‘you sound pathetic’ kind of way. “Well then, today your lucky streak ends,” she replied, void of emotion as she held out the detention papers for her and Kady to take.

Julia accepted hers into an unsteady grip and walked catatonically back to her seat, ignoring the stares of disbelief surrounding her. She dropped into her chair and let her head fall against the desk, bringing her arms to cover the parts of her face that were still visible.

Julia expected Kady to return to her usual seat, but wasn’t all that surprised when the girl stayed in the seat beside her and put her head down, too. “You suck at cheating,” Kady muttered, but the insult lacked the usual iciness.

“Shut. Up.”

Kady complied, only long enough for Julia to begin the process of steadying her breathing.

“So much for passing this class,” she broke the quiet, her voice strangely calm. Julia could even hear traces of humor in the words, like Kady truly didn’t care that their plan had gone just about as sideways as it could possibly go. The indifference was almost refreshing, but the intense disappointment and guilt Julia felt made it impossible to appreciate how composed Kady was remaining.

“I’ll fix it,” Julia whispered, more to herself as a reassurance than to the girl sharing her table. “Mrs. Santos knows I would never cheat.” Kady stifled a laugh at the remark, and despite Julia’s conflicting emotions, she saw the irony and laughed quietly, too. The moment only lasted a second before Julia felt panicked all over again. She had never been to detention— had planned on never even seeing the other side of the designated room.

“I’ll fix it,” she repeated, because focusing on it dulled the burning in her eyes, even if the thumping behind her ribs refused to slow.

The bell rang some time later and Julia shuffled out the door with her head hanging low, her books clutched against her chest. Kady followed behind her, turning to leave down the opposite end of the hallway, but not before sending a smirk Julia’s way.

“See you in detention.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i’ve determined that i’m as bad as the show writers bc i, too, will not give julia a break. oops. it’s all for good reason, though!
> 
> be sure to leave a comment and some kudos if you enjoyed this, i seriously appreciate every single one and they’re what inspire me to write and continue fics when i have 4 creative writing assignments that i should prolly be writing instead lmao. 
> 
> and thank you to everyone who has been supporting this fic so far. lots of love to you all (:


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